The Puritan Fire
From Terrifying Steamboat Stories
The watchman’s fire in a galley stove was blamed for the blaze that destroyed the passenger and freight propeller Puritan near Manistee, Michigan, on December 31, 1895. The steamer was tied up for the winter at Stokoe and Nelson’s Dock at Oak Hill, south of town on Manistee Lake, after a busy season on a daily run between Chicago and Benton Harbor, Michigan.
The watchman, identified only as Gallagher, was keeping a constant fire going in one of the galley stoves for warmth and to prepare his meals as he went about his daily routines. Part of Gallagher’s duties was to make repairs to the ship, getting it ready for the next season. He was working in the hold about 3:30 PM, repacking the bearings along the shaft at the stern pipe, when he heard noises and went forward to investigate. He was shocked to find the boat was on fire and that he was already nearly trapped below deck by the advancing flames. His normal exits were already blocked but Gallagher knew of a small emergency hatch in the stern. By wiggling through he managed to escape to the nearby dock and call for help.
The upper cabins were a mass of flame and smoke when Manistee fire fighters arrived with horse-drawn steam pumps and hoses. It was soon discovered that the fire could not be put out. There were two reasons for this. The lake was frozen over, so harbor tugs with steam-powered pumps couldn’t get close enough to attack the fire from the lake side; and from land, fire fighters found that the nearest fire hydrant was on top of Oak Hill, about fifteen hundred feet from the dock.
They did what they could. The strung all of their hose on a single line from the hydrant, and then used the water to keep the flames from spreading to the dock and nearby lumber stacks. Thus the Puritan burned until it sank in about forty feet of water. The hull and machinery were so badly damaged that the vessel was scrapped.
The Puritan had been on the lakes only eight years and had a reputation of being one of the fastest single screw propellers operating on Lake Michigan. The boat was built at Benton Harbor in 1887. It measured one hundred seventy-two feet in length.
From Terrifying Steamboat Stories
The watchman’s fire in a galley stove was blamed for the blaze that destroyed the passenger and freight propeller Puritan near Manistee, Michigan, on December 31, 1895. The steamer was tied up for the winter at Stokoe and Nelson’s Dock at Oak Hill, south of town on Manistee Lake, after a busy season on a daily run between Chicago and Benton Harbor, Michigan.
The watchman, identified only as Gallagher, was keeping a constant fire going in one of the galley stoves for warmth and to prepare his meals as he went about his daily routines. Part of Gallagher’s duties was to make repairs to the ship, getting it ready for the next season. He was working in the hold about 3:30 PM, repacking the bearings along the shaft at the stern pipe, when he heard noises and went forward to investigate. He was shocked to find the boat was on fire and that he was already nearly trapped below deck by the advancing flames. His normal exits were already blocked but Gallagher knew of a small emergency hatch in the stern. By wiggling through he managed to escape to the nearby dock and call for help.
The upper cabins were a mass of flame and smoke when Manistee fire fighters arrived with horse-drawn steam pumps and hoses. It was soon discovered that the fire could not be put out. There were two reasons for this. The lake was frozen over, so harbor tugs with steam-powered pumps couldn’t get close enough to attack the fire from the lake side; and from land, fire fighters found that the nearest fire hydrant was on top of Oak Hill, about fifteen hundred feet from the dock.
They did what they could. The strung all of their hose on a single line from the hydrant, and then used the water to keep the flames from spreading to the dock and nearby lumber stacks. Thus the Puritan burned until it sank in about forty feet of water. The hull and machinery were so badly damaged that the vessel was scrapped.
The Puritan had been on the lakes only eight years and had a reputation of being one of the fastest single screw propellers operating on Lake Michigan. The boat was built at Benton Harbor in 1887. It measured one hundred seventy-two feet in length.